We continue our run of difficult choices with this week's battle. We're calling on role-playing connoisseurs (and/or professors) for help with these two PC classics - both are immersive and addictive; neither, somewhat annoyingly, is currently available on Steam. Diablo IIis kicking ass in our poll; Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, not so much.

Well, the same week that the Supreme Court heard a case about free speech in video games, we coincidentally selected a battle between two of the most violent, brutal, bloody action games of all time. Mortal Kombat was released amid a great deal of controversy over its portayal of beheadings and organ removals.

A truly immersive gaming experience hinges on atmosphere.
And I would argue that few video games burrow under our skin as
effectively as the ones that drop us into the middle of a desolate
universe, and force us to Figure Shit Out in wordless solitude. It's
what's made the Metroid series so haunting. (Until Team Ninja decided to take a rusty icepick to Samus Aran's prefrontal lobe

This
week, Engadget/Joystiq/Hackaday/GDGT creator Peter Rojas is
(presumably) taking a break from keyboard-tapping his fingers into
bloody blog-posting nubs to bring us the GDGT road show, where the
tech-inclined can scope out some new gear without having to book a
ticket to CES. While you can expect the likes of TomTom, TiVo, and Boxee
at the GDGT showcase -- which makes its Boston stop at Royale on September 22
-- we hear there's not going to be much in the way of video-game
accoutrements.